Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
We probed the glass transition temperature T g at the surface of polystyrene (PS) samples with different molecular weights by embedding of gold nanoclusters. The embedding of the nano-clusters was monitored by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The onset embedding temperature determined by XPS was taken as a measure for the T g at the surface. We observed a small decrease of T g at the surface relative to the bulk for all molecular weights (ΔT g = 2.5- 8.5 K). This decrease is small for short chains (MW = 3.6 kg/mol) and grows to a saturation for M W ≥ 44 kg/mol (ΔT g ≍ 8 K). This is in accord with the smaller relative increase in the number of degrees of freedom between bulk and surface for shorter chains.